Backing up a clients system

[PR Tech]

I wanted some advice on the methods used by other techs on backing up client's data prior to beginning to work on it. I have been manually copying folders I believe are being used by the client (my documents, pictures, desktop, favorites, mail, etc.). I am always afraid I am going to miss something. Also, the backups sometimes take a long time and are using quite a bit of space on my external 500GB drive. I can only keep a client's backup files for about a month without having to clear out space on the drive. What do others use for backing up a system before begining work on a client's system and how long do you feel like is a reasonable time to store those backups?

 

[acs]

I use an external drive and manually back up the same as you but also drivers and product keys. Once these are safely back on the owners PC I delete my copy. I do not want to be accused of keeping or snopping someone elses data. if for some reason the data was copied to CD / DVD the original owner also get that.

 

[MobileTechie]

If I'm backing up just in case I mess their system up then I usually clone the drive. That way I know I have everything. I've got 1.5tb of storage but all the same I don't store their data for longer than a week or so tops. There is a risk in holding data too - if it gets stolen you might be liable for losses caused by id theft or similar.

 

[NickCat11]

+1 for imaging the drive. After I image it I mount it to my bench computer and then draw the files from there. This way there's no chance of missing anything. I'll store the backup usually for a week or two. I'll make a phone within that time to the customer to make sure everything is OK. If it is, the backup gets tossed.

 

[Alan22]

When I see deals on external hard drives I buy a few. I always have a couple on hand. One thing I strongly suggest to my clients is to make regular data backups & I usually end up selling the external drive to them along with a backup solution. Their data is backed up, I don't need to store it and they don't need to be concerned that I have it.

 

[DanB]

autobackup3

I start with Fabs Autobackup3 (tool of the week). Get the multi license kit to save money. It saves me so much time and unless the customer has a special hidden folder you get all their data in minutes. If you need to nuke and pave restoring their data is fast.

I do look in the root directory to find any data folders that are not in the usual places.

Even when I do a disk image prior to a nuke I use autobackup3 first.

I do keep their data for a month or so before delete if I did a nuke. Otherwise I copy it back onto their hardrive (most customers have huge amounts of free space anymore).

Alann22 idea with the hardrives is how I update my own computer. When I feel the need to re-image I just buy a new hardrive.

 

[chrisaroz]

Fab's AutoBackup 3 is not a V2 update. Its been entirely rewritten and improved ergonomically to provide ease of use but with a maximum of compatibility with Windows XP, Vista and 7.

HAHA I've never thought of software as being ergonomic. I'll need to check this out!

I'll usually just copy over the documents and such. I may need to re-evaluate this practice though.

 

[zfrogz]

I also always image the drive usually with ghost if I feel a backup is needed before I work on it. Hard drives are cheap so if you are out of storage for your customers backups, I would get more drives. I generally store a backup for about 30 days and tell my customers this to give them piece of mind.

 

[kisk]

I have been using PC INSPECTOR clone maxx on the UBCD bootable cd. It clones the drive to a new partition on a second drive and is pretty quick about it, so if I ruin a clients drive data I can always clone back to the original and start over.

Call a week or two later and if everything is fine then delete the backed up partition.

I've done this by default so far but I'm thinking about changing for it.

 

[numnutz]

I always tell the customer first its there responsibility to have there data backed up. I tell them I will do my best to catch what I can but make no promise I will catch everything. Make them sign a document stating as such. Purchase the computer business kit on here, it has all the forms purtaining to this...

After that if the user wants me to attempt it, I back up each users account my docs, fav, desktop folders, pst files etc on to an external. after restoring to customers machine I will burn cd / dvd for the user then delete files from my external...

 

[gabak]

what i do is to give to the customer a form ,with the things he/she want me to save , my docs , favorites , etc , they have to fill up the form and sign it.
then i save the things they want me to save , for copying data i use UBUNTU it is so fast with EXT4 usually i get 10 to 20mb/s so in in less of 2 hs i got all data i need it.
if i have to nuke their hdd then i move and i never copy so this way to go my hdd clean all the time